Last week I was invited to pour at a wine tasting event sponsored by Vinum Wine & Spirits Importing & Distributing.
A healthy turnout of buyers for upscale restaurants, wine bars, and retailers had the pleasure of tasting dozens of stateside and european labels. Their remarks sounded something like this:
Smooth and round
Delicate citrus acidity
Beautiful energy on the palate
Long mineral finish
Lingers impressively against lively acidity and a refined texture
An earthy aroma
Brings richness and texture to the mid-palate
Much like a book’s jacket, the label (of what turned out to be my favorite) is the first thing that grabs my attention. ABRACADABRA — Brian Carter Cellars, Columbia Valley, Washington State—is a blend of 11 (eleven!) red varietals aged in quality oak barrels. If this were a dog it would be a mongrel; a Heinz 57. As a wine, it has an unbeatable pedigree!
The back label has an equally engaging description:
What type of magic do you enjoy?
Tuesdays with Laurie 
Hi Laurie
The magic of nature, which includes people.
The magic of reality – so much more than any of our theories (ever) – I love how infinity can be like that!!!
Ted — You triggered a face-splitting grin this morning. Thank you! 🙂
It sounds like a fun event, Laurie! Wine tastings are so much fun. I also like looking at and reading wine labels. Some of them are so clever, funny, and/or beautiful.
I love the magic of books and movies that can whisk you away to another world. The magic of wine and conversation with friends is great, too. 😉
Merril — I love the magic you enjoy, too. How you can sit in a chair in your living room, yet be transported to a completely different place in the pages of a book!
I love the book jacket/wine label analogy.
And the list of descriptions of wines was an education in terminology that could also apply to the making of books.
I enjoy the magic of words, stories, and little arms around my neck.
Shirley — “…and little arms around my neck.” That’s the best magic of all! 🙂
At the moment I am enjoying the magic of vintage markets . The nooks , corners , pots, baskets , drawers and cupboards full to brimming of time gone past. I love to feel and smell the past as well as see it . The trouble is I get lost and loose my self in dreams and I make up stories and images so much so today I ended up being blocked in a car park by some huge tank of a car …that soon bought me out of my dream world . 😀 Never mind a nice glass of red wine this evening will be consolation ..Acracadabra 👏 Love it
Cherryx
Cherry — I love your description of the vintage markets. It made me feel like I was right there getting lost in yesteryear with you! 🙂
Love the label of the wine you liked. I’m also one for the magic of books, imagination, music… But also nature and people. There’s magic all around.
Olga — “There’s magic all around.” Amen siSTAR! 🙂
I wake up and all the housework is done! That’d be my perfect kind of magic!!!
Fatimasaysell — Meeeeee tooooooo! 🙂
I love the magic of neighborhood connections.
Last evening our neighbor Fran found a dog and asked me and others to be on the lookout for someone roaming the streets looking for Goku. This morning a woman with a lost dog flier came by and soon dog and mistress were reunited. To use your descriptive phrasing above, our streets are circular and ROUND, and the transition from lost to found was SMOOTH. I suppose there was some WHINE too until little homesick Goku got back home.
On another note, I’m with Fatima – wake up and my house cleaned by Genie. That would be magic too!
Marian — I absolutely love the innovative way you used the wine phrasing to create the story of Goku!
I love that wine label and I may have to go hunting for some of that Abracadabra. I love the magic and mystery of life in general and how things suddenly open up to synchronicity, then close up again. Nothing ever stays the same. At this time of year I’m enthralled with the changing landscape around me. The colors of the falling leaves, the quick change in temperatures, the smell of woodsmoke, and arctic blue skies.
Joan — “…how things suddenly open up to synchronicity, then close up again.” YES! The kind of magic where we jump in head first to synchronicity while it’s presenting itself to us, however fleeting! 🙂
What a fun and stimulating event and post! I do love the magic of language; of the creative spark that comes up with a wine label called Abracadabra; the use of crisp, clear description; the magic of growing the grape and transforming it into wine.
I love the magic of nature and its’ many facets and underlying fractals. The magic of natures many forms including the numerous species of birds and all life forms.
I could go on and on. Yes life is magical. And a bit of final evidence in the form of the magic of synchronicity … today Doreen Virtue’s Angel Card post is “The Magician” Archangel Riziel … the message “Life is magical.” We are all on a “magical mystery tour.’ (ah yes the magic of music) Thanks Laurie!
Audrey — I’m grinning at the synchronicity of you pulling “The Magician” today from Doreen Virtue’s Angel Card deck. Yes indeed, “Life is magical.” 🙂
Good morning, Laurie! What a charming post, I could almost see sparkles emanating from the label. Like Ted, I also love the Magic of Nature. Taking two or three seemingly inert and dead substances, combining them and before you know it ( a hundred years or so) you have a towering oak tree. An acorn, a patch of soil, and some water: not one of them capable of moving from it’s initial state unless they are manipulated somehow, and creating a spark of Life, capable of growth and reproduction. Earth Magic is often very slow to our Human perspective and perception, but as a great man once said, ” All things are relative.” Water is the chemical catalyst in this type of Magic, but who’s to say that water isn’t Magical in itself?
Sandi — yes, Yes, and YES again. Earth Magic is amazing! And I think you’re right; water is the magical elixir of life 🙂
Labels often influence my purchase of wine – assuming the variety is one I like. The same with book covers. My magic is most often found as I sit on one of my decks, or in the morning room looking out my window, watching the antics of the feathered and furry critters out there, listening to the birdsong and the angry chatter of a Jay or squirrel.
Carol — Having seen photographs taken of and from your decks, I know the incredible array of magic you enjoy on a regular basis.
Abracadabra I’m here! Puff, I am there! Nothing like have a bit of spirits with the spirits!
Anyways, back on my garden path, I am enjoying while learning about Plant Spirits in the process of using and sharing Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade essential oils to create wellness and abundance in all areas of my life! The magic of plants are amazing and it is another way to honor their gifts.
Alakazam !
Jeff — Like you, I love enjoying the phenomenal benefits of essential oils. As we speak, I’m using grapefruit to stimulate the creative process of my mind. And before you know it — bippity, boppity, boop! — I’ll have finished the edits in my manuscript 🙂
Laurie,
I knew you would ! Enjoy!
Where you singing along with The Steve Miller Band the whole time you were enjoying it?
Gary — You crack me up! 🙂
Thank you…..I think 🙂
I do love wine Laurie! I’m also happy that more research came out yesterday saying a daily glass of red wine is good for our overall health. Now that is real magic!
Val — Here’s to the health benefits of wine. Cheers! 🙂
I loved all magic provided by nature. Of which wine is an example, just with a little help of skilled humans the fruit becomes drinkable 🙂
Tiny — Bless the skilled humans who add that wee bit of faerie dust, then voila—wine 🙂
Wine tasting..sounds like my idea of heaven.. love reading labels on bottles of wine as they so often transport you to where they were created…such artistry 🙂
Blondieaka — Your descriptive word—ARTISTRY—captures it all. Thank you! 🙂
What a fun label for a wine! I enjoy the magic of nature. Nothing amazes me more that our beautiful earth.
Chase & Chance’s Mom — I’m in complete and total agreement: “Nothing amazes me more than our beautiful earth!” 🙂
The imaginative descriptions to characterize wines are in themselves an explosive bouquet of divine joy dancing across the palate which enhances the menu choice of main entree yet maintaining an essence of its own. In other words “Shaddup and order another boddle of dis juice.”
Carl – That was hysterical, I love it!
I wouldn’t mind a bit of abracadabra either, Laurie! My6 Dad is quite a wine connaisseur and since hearing about super tasters, I am pretty convinced he is one. He has always had this aversion to chilli, cinnamon and icing. My daughter seems to have some of these traits, which has made her eating issues very complex. She talks to me in such detail about the taste of a food that my head hurts.
Anyway, I grew up with my Dad drinking his good wines and my brother used to send him up. My Dad looks like actor John Cleese and Fawlty towers was on back in the day and Dad made such a good Basil! You could just imagine Basil at a wine tasting!
Anyway, I need to go and photograph Geoff’s book at the beach for what might be deemed a review. I’m actually writing more about reading a book when you know the author and trying to divorce what you know from a work of fiction.
Hope you have a good weekend xx Rowena
Rowena — I love your FULL-ON response here. I think that people who are exceptional tasters, are also perfect candidates to become “smellers” for perfume. Exceptional taste buds usually translates to extraordinary sniffers as well 🙂
Laurie, you’re going to love this full-on response as well. Yes, my Dad also has a very strong sense of smell. While this can be a good thing, it can also work against you.
I was in my early 20s and back living at home inbetween share houses when I had a Valentine’s Day dinner with my single friends so we could drown our sorrows together.
Well, two of my friends started downing shots of Schnapps. and the next thing, the guy throws up and in his mad scurry to try to find a bathroom, throw up all over the white cane furniture next to my parents’ bed. My parents were out and my friend was madly scrubbing the furniture down but as soon as Dad walked in the door he was like the Papa Bear: “Someone’s been sick in the house…Who was sick beside my bed?” No happy!
Thought you’d enjoy that xx Rowena
Roweee — Oh my gosh, that’s hysterical! 🙂
Sounds like another fabulous event Laurie!! Wine tasting is a heartening affair! Magic for me is seeing our kids earn terrific grades. Our traveling as of late has fueled some truly magical experiences!! 🙂
Sam — “…seeing our kids earn terrific grades.” I love it! 🙂
small world – we just picked up some wine from the Columbia Valley on our last trip north…it is what we bring back to my niece who house sits….kat.
New Journey — How cool is that?! 🙂
Haha! The kind of magic in a bottle I enjoy tends to come from Italy and have a touch of sparkle! There are three other types of magic I also enjoy; the love of my children, the love of nature, and the magic of a good book!
Ali — Your comment made me smile. Clearly we’re cut from the same bolt of cloth 🙂
Great minds think alike, so they say! 😊